Isatis violascens Bunge

Herbs annual, 20-60 cm tall, glabrous and glaucous throughout except for fruit, sometimes sparsely pilose. Stems branched above. Basal leaves petiolate or subsessile, withered at flowering; leaf blade oblanceolate, obovate, or ovate, 3.5-7 × 1-2 cm, glabrous, margin entire or obscurely toothed, apex obtuse or rounded. Cauline leaves sessile; leaf blade ovate, lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or narrowly oblong, (1-)2.5-6(-8) × (0.2-)0.6-2.5(-4) cm, base cordate-amplexicaul or auriculate, margin entire, apex acute or acuminate. Fruiting pedicels slender, not thickened at apex, (5-)7-10(-15) mm. Sepals purplish, white at apex, oblong, 1.3-1.8 × 0.5-0.8 mm, glabrous or pilose. Petals white, oblong-spatulate, 2.2-2.8(-3) × 0.5-0.8 mm, base cuneate, apex rounded. Filaments 1.2-2 mm; anthers ovate, 0.2-0.3 mm. Fruit oblong-pandurate, (7-)8-10(-12) × (3.5-)4-5 mm, densely puberulent with minute, simple, subclavate trichomes, subequally winged at base and margin, base rounded, apex emarginate or rarely truncate; locule 5-6(-7) mm; wings 1-2 mm wide at base and margin, 2-3 mm wide at apex. Seeds yellowish brown, oblong, 2.5-3(-3.5) × 1-1.4 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

Sandy deserts. Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].